The Seventh Field Season of the Proyecto Templo Mayor: Recent Investigations on the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan. SAA Symposium. Schedule and abstracts (original) (raw)
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Excavations at the Southern Neighborhood Center of the Tlajinga District, Teotihuacan, Mexico
Latin American Antiquity
Investigations of the Proyecto Arqueológico Tlajinga Teotihuacan (PATT) in 2019 focused on the southern neighborhood center of this cluster of non-elite residences in the southern periphery of the ancient Mexican metropolis. Our objective was to better understand the social infrastructure of public space within the district and how it tied its inhabitants together. Our methods included excavations at two large architectural complexes, geophysical prospection of these and adjacent structures and plazas, and chemical residue analysis of floors and sediments. They revealed architecturally elaborate complexes decorated with mural painting that appear to have been the loci of civic-ceremonial activities. Materials from the excavated portions of the complexes are inconsistent with residential uses, although it is possible that local elites lived elsewhere in the complexes or in others located nearby. The investigations therefore demonstrate that the semipublic spaces of neighborhood cente...
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2019
Archaeological investigations undertaken by the Proyecto Arqueológico Tlajinga Teotihuacán are focused on understanding urban expansion and household economies in this southern district of the city. Our geoarchaeological research addresses similar topics through examination of relevant microstratigraphic and botanical signatures as well as those relevant to reconstructing paleoenvironment. We investigated four different contexts at Tlajinga: the southern extension of the Street of the Dead, an obsidian working area outside Compound 17:S3E1, anthropogenic and natural layers below Compound 18:S3E1, and a soil profile at the San Lorenzo river. We employed micromorphological, pollen, and phytolith analyses as well as standard soil analytics to study the various deposits in these contexts. Our analysis demonstrates artificial lowering of the tepetate for continuing the axis of the Street of the Dead, microdebitage from obsidian working outside Compound 17:S3E1, and the preservation of in situ burning activities at Compound 18:S3E1. Further, we reconstruct alluvial infilling of the Street of the Dead with pedogenetic overprinting and present further evidence on the occurrence and variability of the Black San Pablo Paleosol and its agricultural significance.
Archaeological data relating to the fauna exploited by the Mexicas and their neighbors in the Basin of Mexico are relatively sparse. To a large extent, this is due to the fact that the majority of pre-Hispanic settlements from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries have gradually been buried under Mexico City, a megalopolis that today houses more than 20 million inhabitants and that continues to grow at an unbridled rate (see Parsons 1989). Archaeologists have excavated only a few rural sites in detail, revealing some of the complex human-animal relationships in these kinds of contexts at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards. Outstanding examples include the projects of Elizabeth M. Brumfiel (2005) at Xaltocan, Raúl Ávila López (2006) at Mexicaltzingo, and Mary G. Hodge at Chalco, which focus on these modest settlements located at opposite ends of the Basin's lake system.
2010
In 1969, Paul Tolstoy commented that archaeological investigation at La Venta had become "a fairly long and at times tortuous story of excavation, interpretation, re-interpretation, and depredation at the famous site found by Stirling." This thesis adds to the torture by describing and illustrating the architecture, burials, offerings, and stone sculpture of La Venta Complex A in an effort to reconcile data into an accurate sequence of meaningful cultural events. The details derive from excavation reports, field notes, maps, photographs, and correspondence of the early investigators of the site. This study addressed three myopic perceptions regarding La Venta: (1) the secludedness of Complex A, in particular the Ceremonial Court, from its inception to its termination, (2) the classification and identification of real human burials in Complex A, and (3) the analytical decontextualization of objects, offerings, and monuments from connected ritual activities there. I thank the New World Archaeology Foundation (NWAF) artists, particularly Megan Wakefield and Kisslan Chan, for assistance with the illustrations and Mary Pye for her helpful comments. I am grateful to Dr. Allen Christenson and Dr. Donald Forsyth for being on my thesis committee and for being tolerant of my last minute, up to the deadline presentation and submission. I thank Evie Forsyth in the Anthropology Department and Fred Nelson for making sure I did not lose my way. My appreciation is offered to NWAF: first, for providing me a paid position and interesting work, and second, for supporting my research into the site of La Venta. Grants from the Grace Shallit Memorial Fund, the Brigham Young University Anthropology Department, and NWAF also helped fund much of my research. I thank the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institute, for allowing me to search their tremendous collections and for providing photocopies and scans of numerous documents, photographs, and maps. I know my requests required considerable time and effort. Also, the Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institute, allowed me a glimpse into the excavation of La Venta by providing copies of Uncovering Mexico's Forgotten Treasures and Exploring Hidden Mexico. All research paled in the light of my three boys, Xavier, Fawkes, & Kian; but ultimately they made the work worthwhile. Lastly I bow to Quint, without whom I could accomplish little.
Open Archaeology, 2017
The ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacan had the most aberrant design of any city in ancient Mesoamerica. I examine similarities and differences between the design of Teotihuacan and other Mesoamerican cities. During the Preclassic period, a set of common Mesoamerican planning principles emerged. The designers of Teotihuacan rejected most of these principles in favor of a new and radical set of planning concepts. After the fall of Teotihuacan, subsequent urban planners ignored the Teotihuacan principles and returned to ancient Mesoamerican planning ideas. Elements of the Teotihuacan plan did not resurface until the Mexica of Tenochtitlan revived them for a specific goal. The historical sequence of central Mexican city layouts highlights the anomalous character of Teotihuacan’s principles of urban design within the canons of ancient Mesoamerican urbanism.